Faults
by BeautifulPixy
Summary: this was originally written by two people Beautifulgirl and Pixy. And Pixy posted it the 1st time and now its being reposted as a collaboration.


TITLE: Faults  
  
AUTHOR: BeautifulPixy  
  
RATING: PG 13  
  
CLASSIFICATION: GSR  
  
SPOILERS: None  
  
DISCLAIMER: don't own them never did never will  
  
AUTHOR'S NOTE: this was originally written by two people Beautifulgirl and Pixy. And Pixy posted it the 1st time and now its being reposted as a collaboration.  
  
Enjoy!  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"That case was pretty awful, huh?" Sara asked as she rubbed her face and leaned back against the wall. "Makes me want to go crawl into my bed and never leave again. Just hide there."  
  
"Good idea. And since we finally solved this case, we can do just that." Grissom answered as he finished clearing his desk. He realized his speech blunder instantaneously. The way he had answered made it sound like he and Sara were going to crawl into bed together. He was hoping Sara was too exhausted to catch on. No such luck.  
  
Sara had heard the comment and tried to mask her huge smile with her hands, but burst out laughing instead. Grissom saw her smile and frowned at her. "That came out wrong, I didn't mean." Sara waved him off. She was going to have some fun with this.  
  
"So. You want in my bed huh? The truth finally comes out." She was laughing now. Grissom shook his head and rolled his eyes. They both needed a little mood lifter after the hell of a night they had. He even managed a smile. But the smile was a sad one. She didn't how close she really was the truth of the whole matter. But all that didn't matter. But of course neither one had acted on them. Perhaps she had been waiting for Grissom to make the first move, but she must have given up on that happening.  
  
"Well, from what I hear.. your bed's full." Grissom watched as the smile dropped from Sara's face and her laughter stopped.  
  
The comment itself could have been a playful jab, but the tone Grissom used made it clear that the remark was meant to be serious. A bit of his jealousy and disappointment in the whole situation leaked out with his reply. Sara crossed her arms and stared at him.  
  
"Ouch." Her spoken reaction was short but then a puzzled look came across her face. She glanced around the room. Grissom mimicked her movements but couldn't figure out what she was look at. "Did it just drop twenty degrees in here or is it just me?" She asked. "Bed's full, huh? You wanna explain that insult or do I have to figure it out?" Her slightly better mood was obviously gone now.  
  
Normally, he would have tried to end the conversation, make a lame apology to pacify Sara's temper and head for home. But for some reason, tonight he didn't want to just back down. Sara would push him on this and he wanted to push back for a change. He was mad now. The combination of the stressful work night and the fact that a women he had feelings for was going home, and probably not to be by herself, but to be with some jerk EMT was irritating. Grissom shrugged and replied condescendingly. "It wasn't an insult, Sara. You do have a boyfriend now, correct? That EMT guy, Hank is his name, right?"  
  
"So what *if* Hank and I would be dating. But I don't recall posting whether or not I'm sleeping with him on the freakin' bulletin board." Sara wondered silently how the hell she had ended up in this conversation, with Grissom of all people!! She mulled over why she hadn't just gone straight home tonight, instead of trying to make some lame small talk with Grissom. She had gotten more than she had bargained for tonight. "Oh, I'm sorry. I just assumed you were sleeping with him." Grissom knew he had crossed a line with that comment. That statement had all sorts of implications buried in it. He was being an asshole, but he just couldn't seem to stop himself.  
  
"You.. assumed." Sara clinched her jaw and bore a hole into Grissom with her eyes.  
  
Since there really was no saving the conversation from the depths of hell, Grissom decided to try the direction approach with his next sentence.  
  
"Well, are you?" He raised his eyebrows. What the heck. Couldn't get any worse.  
  
"Am I what? Sleeping with him?" Sara threw the words at Grissom with anger. Then she stood very still and relaxed her features. It all clicked inside her mind at that point. Grissom was jealous, plain and simple. That's why he was being such an ass right now. He was never like this. But he was JEALOUS of her being with Hank. And she knew that even though he had asked the big question, he didn't really want to know if she was sleeping with Hank. No guy reallllly wants to know that the girl they want is nailing another guy. He was bluffing and was about to get busted.  
  
Sara cocked her head to the side and smirked. "Yes." She lied  
  
Grissom looked like someone had slapped him across the face. He had expected a tirade of 'That's none of your business' and then numerous expletives and to have Sara storm out of the office, but he did NOT expect honesty. He did not want honesty.  
  
"Mmmph." Sara was satisfied with Grissom's response----absolute silence. "How do you like them apples, Grissom? Yes, I'm dating a guy. Yes, I'm sleeping with him. And yes, I know that it bothers you." "Ok, this conversation is over." Grissom pushed past Sara and headed down the hall to the parking lot. Sara smiled to herself and followed him.  
  
"So, you're not even going to deny that it bothers you?" Sara skipped a few steps to catch up to Grissom who was trying to make a quick exit.  
  
"It doesn't bother me." Grissom curtly replied.  
  
"Oh, that was convincing!" Sara was laughing. "Just tell the truth. Say the words for once! You hate the fact that I am dating someone!" Sara was hovering over his shoulder has he unlocked his Tahoe. Grissom let out a heavy sigh and dropped his shoulders. Giving up on actually getting into his car, he turned around. "Sara, listen. I could care less what you do or who you do it with. What you do on your own time is really irrelevant to me. Outside of work, you don't matter." There, Grissom thought. That should end the conversation.  
  
Sara raised her eyebrows, disbelieving what he had just said. She pointed her finger at his chest. And waiting until she had his full attention. "Asshole."  
  
Grissom was still. He could see the hurt in her eyes. The whole conversation had gotten out of hand. This way exactly why he didn't talk about his feelings. His thoughts usually ended up coming out wrong. Grissom reached for Sara's hand, which was still hovering in front of his chest. She tried to pull free of his grip. "Fuck off. Let me go."  
  
"Sara. Sara, wait, Stop. Time out ok? Ok?" He was watching to make sure she was listening. "I didn't mean what I said. I just wanted to stop talking about all this." He was holding her hand as they leaned up against the Tahoe.  
  
"And what a brilliant way to end a conversation. By telling someone that you've seen everyday for three years, that she could die and you wouldn't care, as long as it was off the clock. Ya know, everyone thinks that you are such a tortured soul just because you're quiet, but you can be such an asshole."  
  
"I deserve that. I'm an asshole, I'm sorry. I just didn't want to talk about your personal life anymore." Grissom was nodding as he talked, agreeing with her observation of his character.  
  
"Didn't want to talk about?!!! You're the one that brought it up! I didn't run into your office saying 'Hey, Griss, let's talk about the guy I'm banging'. You mentioned Hank first! I've been very careful not to throw the fact that I am seeing someone in your face."  
  
"Why would it matter if you talked about the guy you're seeing in front of me?" Grissom scrunched up his face.  
  
"Let's just say if you were seeing some woman, I wouldn't want to hear about it. I thought I would pay you that courtesy." Sara stared at the pavement, not wanting to see his reaction to the hint she had just dropped. "Are you happy with him?" He asked abruptly.  
  
Sara jerked her head toward him. "That's kinda personal, you sure you want to know the answer? Does the answer matter to you?"  
  
"Yes, it matters." Grissom took a breath. Maybe he had acted coy long enough tonight, maybe it was time for him to be honest.  
  
"Well. I'm as happy as I can be considering."  
  
"That doesn't sound like a very confident answer. I thought you two were getting serious." Or at least that is what he had overheard in the break room.  
  
"Griss, things with Hank are just complicated. It's like.. Well, it's like sometimes you have a craving for rocky road ice cream so you go to the store but when you get there all they have is regular chocolate. But you know the regular chocolate is just as good, just doesn't have all the extra stuff. But the extra stuff you really might not need, you can live without it but you still think about all the extra stuff when you are settling for the plain chocolate."  
  
Grissom smiled and looked at Sara. "Now that's an analogy."  
  
Sara returned a small smile. "Did that make any sense? Geez, I feel stupid talking about this with you." The two stood quietly, studying the pavement in unison for several minutes. Finally Sara broke the silence. "It doesn't have to be this way, you do realize that don't you?"  
  
He cocked his head, "What do you mean?"  
  
She waved her hand between the two of them. "This. Us.. It doesn't have to be so difficult. It's all up to you."  
  
"But you are with someone now. And you're happy, at least happy enough to stay with him."  
  
"Griss, I'm tired of being alone. I'm sick of working all the time on my days off cause I have nothing better to do. I'm sick of not having someone around me. I've been pushing people away for a long time now and I am just not doing it anymore. Don't get me wrong, Hank really is a great guy, but if I'm not with him, I will be with someone else. I will not be alone. If that sounds desperate, I really don't care. I'm too tired to care." Sara leaned into Grissom, who was standing next to her. They continued to stare at the ground. Somehow not looking at each other made the conversation easier.  
  
"It doesn't sound desperate. It sounds normal. It's what people are supposed to do, seek out other people. Some of us just do that better than others." Grissom tapped Sara's shoe with his own.  
  
She smiled at his playful gesture. "Well, you better start practicing or something. Time's running out. Grissom turned his head toward Sara and frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"  
  
Sara smiled, "I'm being enigmatic. Like you usually are. Like it?"  
  
"Not really." He replied.  
  
She shrugged, "Tough. Figure it out, bug man." She winked at him and walked away to her car.  
  
~Fin~ 


End file.
